Jordan Linn Graham: A Tragic Tale of Love, Lies, and Murder in Glacier National Park

Jordan Linn Graham, 22, pushed her husband of eight days off a majestic cliff at Glacier National Park, Flathead County, Montana, USA, on July 7, 2013. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her husband, Cody Johnson, 25.

Incident

Graham was married to her husband, Cody Lee Johnson, 25. During her trial, she claimed that she had grown cold feet having sex with her husband after their marriage. She claimed Johnson was going to want her to do all sorts of kinky things in the bedroom.

She decided to talk to Johnson about her unhappiness eight days after their wedding. So on the evening of July 7, just about sunset, they went to a popular spot in Glacier Park called The Loop.

They went over a retaining wall along the Going-to-the-Sun Road and climbed down a rocky, steep slope to the edge of a cliff and a steep drop of a couple of hundred feet to a ravine.

There, facing the void, she told Johnson that she wasn't really happy and that she was not feeling like she believed what she ought to after being married, she said.

They argued. It escalated, culminating with Johnson grabbing her, Graham said. She thought he was going to pull her toward him - and that's when she became angry.

At one point, she turned to walk away, but Johnson grabbed her arm, she said. She turned around, removed his hand from her arm, and 'due to her anger, she pushed Johnson with both hands in the back, and as a result, he fell face first off the cliff,' an affidavit states.

Johnson was reported missing on July 8 when he failed to show up for work. Graham later reported that she had spotted his body.

Investigation/Trial

After the dangerous fall, Graham hurriedly rushed back into the car and drove back home to Kalispell without seeking help. She sent text messages to friends on the drive back - but told nobody what had just happened.

At the trial, it was established that on the morning of July 10, 2013, Graham created an email account entitled "carmontony607" using Google from her parent's residence in Kalispell. A few minutes after that account was established, the defendant emailed herself the following message:

Hello Jordan, My name is Tony. There is no bother in looking for Cody anymore. He is gone. I saw your post on Twitter and thought I would email you. He had come with some buddies and met up with me on Sunday night in Columbia Falls. He was saying he needed to be with buddies for a bit and take them for a joy ride before they had to go. So he said bye to me and they took off in a black car for a ride. 3 of the other guys came back saying they had gone for a ride in the woods somewhere and Cody got out of the car and went for a little hike they are positive he fell and he is dead Jordan. I don't know who the guys were but they took off. So call off the missing person report. Cody is for sure gone. -Tony."

Four days later, Graham led friends and relatives to the park, where they found Johnson's body, initially claiming she had found him after a search.

Graham concocted a story that her husband had gone off with friends and had not returned. Police had to use a helicopter to retrieve Johnson's body from the steep cliffs below the park's Loop Trail. His body was recovered on July 12.

When interviewed by authorities on July 18, Graham admitted that she had lied about the death of her husband and provided false statements.

In exchange for her plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of premeditated first-degree murder as well as one count of making a false statement to authorities.

She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder just before closing arguments during her December trial but tried unsuccessfully to retract that plea after prosecutors recommended a prison term of 50 years to life.

Prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge and a count of making a false statement to authorities when Graham changed her plea.

Judgment

On March 27, 2014, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said he saw no remorse from Jordan Graham, 22, in the killing of Cody Johnson, 25. He sentenced her to 30 years and five months in prison and ordered her to pay $16,910 in restitution.

Graham will be subject to five years of court supervision upon her release. There is no possibility of parole in the federal system, meaning she's likely to serve the full term.